Huawei Became Second Largest Smartphone OEM In Q2: Gartner

Huawei has managed to move into the second spot in the worldwide smartphone market during the second quarter of 2018, outpacing Apple which used to be the second largest smartphone vendor in the world. The latest ranking comes from Gartner, which reported that the Chinese original equipment manufacturer (OEM) has shipped more than 49 million units during the previous quarter of this year, representing 13.3 percent of the market. Huawei is next only to Samsung, which maintained its lead in the global smartphone market with more than 72 million in total shipment during Q2 2018, accounting for 19.3 percent of that market. However, it's worth noting that while Samsung remained the top smartphone vendor, its marketing share declined by 12.7 percent during the past quarter as it continues to struggle with a growing competition from Chinese OEMs and a decreasing smartphone demand globally. Meanwhile, Apple delivered over 44 million smartphone units to consumers during that same period and accounted for only 11.9 of the market.

Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner, said Huawei recorded a smartphone sales growth of 38.6 percent in Q2 2018, buoyed by the company's investments in "channels, brand building and positioning of the Honor devices." For added context, Huawei shipped nearly 36 million smartphones during the same period last year, during which it accounted for only 9.8 percent of the market. At the same time, Apple took a bigger chunk of the smartphone market then, with a 12.1 percent market share. Based on these figures, Apple recorded a relatively flat growth from the second quarter of 2017 to the previous quarter of this year, with a 0.9 percent growth. According to Mr. Gupta, this is due to the small incremental value in Apple's latest flagship iPhone model, adding that demand for the device began to decline earlier than the launch of Apple's other products. Coming next to Apple is Xiaomi, another Chinese OEM which shipped nearly 33 million smartphones during Q2 2018, followed by OPPO with 28.5 million shipments during the same period. Overall, the total global smartphone shipment reached 374.3 million during the past quarter, growing 2 percent compared to the previous quarter.

The latest report from Gartner is consistent with the International Data Corporation's (IDC) figures released last month, indicating that Huawei surpassed Apple to become the second leading smartphone vendor in the world during Q2 2018.